If you have an adventurous palate, join Vikram Doctor every fortnight as he indulges in his appetite for the stories of food. Taste the origins, legends and practical magic of ingredients and recipes that range from the everyday to the extraordinary.

Through ancestral kitchens, gourmet restaurants, exotic vegetable farms, modern agriculturists, heirloom aficionados… One of India’s most respected food writers has been there, eaten that and knows that there is no love more sincere than the love of food.

14. Fasting (Upvas) Food: Innovations from the Devout Kitchen

Fasting is a big part of Indian culture, across religions. However for Hindus, fasting does not mean starving. Just as well, because according to the Bhavishya Purana, there are as many as 139 different fasts to be followed in a year. But, rather than not eating, it is actually a fertile ground for food innovation. This episode of The Real Food Podcast finds out how fasting has helped us rediscover ingredients such as rajgira (amaranth), lotus seeds and yam; foods that may have otherwise disappeared.

Music: Josh Woodward

Photo Credit: Soam (Jignesh Jhaveri and Shubhangi Dhaimade)

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AUDIOMATIC

Photographs of Aakar Patel by Biswajit Dey, of Vikram Doctor by Meenakshi Doctor, of Samanth and Padma by Padmaparna Ghosh, of Anuvab Pal and Kunaal Roy Kapur by Azhar Khan, and of abandoned swim-shorts by Genesia Alves. All other pics by Unsplash.

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